The air traffic control towers at the Ramona Airport and Brown Field will be closed April 7, two of 149 such towers across the country operated under contract with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is cutting costs because of sequestration.

The closures will not force the shutdown of any of those airports, but pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers, the FAA said. All pilots are trained to fly using those procedures.

The plan has raised concerns since a preliminary list of facilities was released a month ago. Those worries include the impact on safety and the potential financial effect on communities that rely on airports to help attract businesses and tourists.

"We will work with the airports and the operators to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement.

In a news release issued Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the agency received emails and other forms of communications from communities across the country about the importance of their towers.

“These were very tough decisions,” he said. “Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts.”

The Ramona Airport, along with being a standard civilian airport, is home to Cal Fire’s Ramona Air Attack base, the hub of the county’s aerial firefighting effort.

When word came from Washington just two weeks ago that the tower might be closed, county politicians and fire officials asked the community to email the FAA with its objections.

While the Air Attack base will continue to operate without a tower, they said, it will make operations more dangerous, especially during fire storms when as many as 18 firefighting aircraft can use the facility at the same time.

“The decision to close this tower is a situation where the federal government can’t get its budget act together,” said county Supervisor Dianne Jacob Friday afternoon. “They shouldn’t be taking a hatchet approach and should be putting public safety first.”

For decades the airport operated without a tower, but after two airplanes working for the U.S. Forest Service collided over the town in 1995, killing all three people on board the spotter plane and the tanker that were returning from fighting a desert fire, efforts began to have a tower built.

The tower finally opened in 2003 and has been operated under an FAA contract with a private company. Air traffic controllers coordinate takeoffs and landings. Closing the tower will save the agency about $500,000.

Cal Fire spokesman Mike Mohler said the closure will not affect the air attack base. “It’s going to be business as usual for us,” he said. “We will still be fighting fires.” He said many of the bases across the state, including one in Hemet where a large base is located, don’t have towers.